For most Indian youth, ‘Education abroad’ was one of those impossible dreams. The kind that was reserved for just the rich and the famous. This is now a thing of the past.
The situation has changed for good during the recent years with number of students going abroad to pursue their higher education in the prestigious universities and institutions. Fantastic prospects and amazing opportunities are with in the reach for those hardworking students who really care about their academic brilliance and thereby success in life. 
Several consultancies have come up to open the doors to more opportunities in the overseas universities in recent years. With the Internet offering a spectacular arena to bring all the details from every corner of the world in seconds, the world has come really closer. The banks have been offering loans to the eligible students to go aboard making finance a no problem to the needed. Thus a foreign degree or post graduation is no more out of reach but there are also other reasons for this migration of students from India.
Lack of quality bodies to cater to the domestic talents:
Competition for the admission into India’s best institutions are very intense that only about two percent of those taking admission tests for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) gain admission.
Alternative high quality education options are needed for the talented students turned down by these institutions and many such premier institutions.
To add to this situation, growing population of Indian higher education seekers make it impossible for the Indian Institutes to accommodate the demand because the Institutions are already strapped for funds and will be hard-pressed to find more. According to the parliamentary standing committee on Human Resources Development, most important issues facing the higher education sector in India have been identified as access and equity, relevance, quality and excellence, governance, management, and funding.
Amazing opportunities and facilities abroad:
According to recent reports, only one in four engineering graduates in India are employable in the IT & the IT enabled services industry.
An article titled ‘skill gap hurts technology boom in India’ in the NewYorkTimes dated October 19, 2006 said, ” the rest were found to lack required technical skills, English fluency, team work skills or oral presentation skills”. This is where foreign education is an amazing opportunity.
Nishaaf of educational consultancy services – ‘Study Overseas’ points out “besides greater exposure, the difference in the whole attitude towards their lives and career are significant factors that add on to the interest for sending the students abroad”.
The essential difference in the curriculum abroad is that unlike what is seen in India, where teaching is done in schools and colleges, it’s learning on one’s own. The atmosphere is created and lecturers in the classroom take the backseat, the students learn themselves through better use of libraries and seminars, which could make them really thorough with what they have studied.
The foreign countries also provide the students with ample facilities to support their educational and other related expenses. The students abroad, work during their spare hours to earn an extra income. Most countries allow their students to work for 20 hrs every week. Most students exceed this limit to find more income. The universities themselves help the student to find such part time jobs, a very helpful system but not prevalent in India. The job prospects abroad are also splendid. Generally they get highly paid jobs abroad, quite a number of students who go abroad for studies remain there pursuing some exiting jobs.
It is natural to seek more attractive avenues and it’s quite unfair to pull the talent back if there are not enough opportunities available but constant export of talent is also not favourable condition for a developing country. Lately some good trends are around. The doors are open for the major players in the world in India and many prestigious educational institutions are taking interest in opening their branches in the country.
Those from the country who were working abroad are showing interest to come back to their native. The stage is set to upgrade the educational infrastructure here and the work has already begun.
